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Fix aboriginal schools
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
Apr 30 2010
It was five years ago that Martin’s government forged agreement between Ottawa, the provinces and native groups for the $5 billion Kelowna Accord, which would have addressed educational issues. When the Conservatives took power in 2006, one of their first acts was to kill Kelowna. All these years later, Canada’s aboriginal youth cannot wait much longer for a coherent federal focus on education, backed by serious funding.
Tags: Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Fix aboriginal schools
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
Apr 30 2010
It was five years ago that Martin’s government forged agreement between Ottawa, the provinces and native groups for the $5 billion Kelowna Accord, which would have addressed educational issues. When the Conservatives took power in 2006, one of their first acts was to kill Kelowna. All these years later, Canada’s aboriginal youth cannot wait much longer for a coherent federal focus on education, backed by serious funding.
Tags: Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
On native reserves: big spending, fake democracy
Monday, April 26th, 2010
April 21, 2010
…the law currently does not require aboriginal bands to submit to the same standards of accountability and transparency as all other senior Canadian officials — an absolutely unconscionable loophole whose only conceivable function is to spare aboriginal leaders embarrassment… The problem is that “self-government” is a contradiction in terms when someone else is paying the bill: Without the political discipline that comes with being accountable to taxpaying voters, politicians operate in a world without constraints.
Tags: Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Pharmacy war turning ugly
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Apr 25 2010
If the newspaper ads are to be believed, patient care in this province will spiral downward because of a misguided government plan to get more value for the taxpayers’ dollar. But it’s hard to see what is so bad about cutting prices for generic drugs (bringing them more in line with what’s charged abroad) and banning a convoluted system of “professional allowances” to pharmacies from manufacturers (for stocking their products) — especially when the moves will free up more than $500 million a year for the province to deal with other pressing health needs.
Tags: Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Unseen housing plan
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
April 20, 2010
the Ontario Housing Network, a coalition of housing and anti-poverty groups, went to Queen’s Park on Monday to urge the government to produce a bold plan that includes: sustained funding to maintain the affordable housing we already have; a strategy to increase the supply of housing that is actually affordable for those in need; and transparent accounting of how the money is spent and what it achieves.
Tags: housing, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Dalton McGuinty’s pretend economics
Monday, April 19th, 2010
April 19, 2010
Mr. McGuinty and Ms. Matthews aren’t dealing in reality. Rather than give the industry time to adjust to the massive change being forced on its finances, the province prefers to grandstand, announcing sudden changes and then pretending there won’t be any pain. Mr. McGuinty’s government has increased its own expenditures every year its been in office because it is incapable of even the most basic restraint on spending, yet expects drug chains and landlords to swallow millions in revenue cuts at the drop of a hat.
Tags: Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The best person for the job [employment equity]
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
April 15, 2010
If a general mentality of prejudice in favour of men — i.e. a systemic discrimination — ever existed, it is long gone now. That means that continuing an employment equity policy risks placing skin colour or chromosomes or impairment above talent in civil service hires, which also means that social engineering will be given a higher priority than efficiency and competence.
Tags: disabilities, multiculturalism, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
We’re in a pinch [reducing salt intake]
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Sep. 18, 2009
Reducing sodium in the Canadian diet should be a national priority, but Ottawa’s sluggish response suggests it is anything but. The Sodium Working Group, with representatives of government, the food processing industry and medicine, is proposing to take four years to come up with a plan… Achieving salt reductions of roughly 25 per cent is at least as doable and perhaps as beneficial as fighting obesity. The effect on health – and health-care budgets – could be huge. As much as $2-billion a year could be saved by reducing hypertension linked to salt. The cost of prevention is only a fraction of what it costs to care for heart attack and stroke victims.
Tags: Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
All talk, no action on pension reform
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Apr 10 2010
Flaherty announced “online consultations” with a special email address (ris-consultations-srr@fin.gc.ca) so you can drop him a line. But the bottom line is that this looks suspiciously like another ruse by a government that is buying time in tough times. It took a near economic collapse to make Canadians realize they are sleepwalking to retirement shortfalls if nothing is done to shore up vulnerable pensions, volatile investments, outdated bankruptcy laws – and a gaping hole that leaves nearly two-thirds of Canadians without an employer pension plan.
Tags: pensions
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Tackling the cost of health care
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Apr 08 2010
As for containing costs, the government is relying on a mixture of carrots and sticks. Among the carrots is legislation linking the pay of health-care executives to the quality of care delivered. The sticks include bargaining down generic drug prices and the “professional allowances” for pharmacies.
Tags: budget, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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